(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a control method for a hydrogen leak determining system of a fuel cell vehicle, and more particularly, to a control method of determining a hydrogen leak by measuring a distance of a fuel cell vehicle using a smart key and controlling detection of a hydrogen sensor based on a difference between the measured distance and a set distance between the vehicle and the smart key.
(b) Background Art
In general, a fuel cell system for a fuel cell vehicle is divided into an air process system (APS), a fuel process system (FPS), a thermal management system (TMS), and a vent system. The air process system supplies air (oxygen) to react with hydrogen to a fuel cell stack and the fuel process system supplies hydrogen to the fuel cell stack. Meanwhile, the thermal management system maintains heat generated from the fuel cell stack during a reaction at an appropriate temperature and maintains water balance required throughout the whole system, and the vent system discharges air, hydrogen, and water which participate in the reaction in the fuel cell stack.
Such a fuel cell system produces power required for driving a vehicle by a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen that are stored in the fuel cell system. In particular, the hydrogen used as a fuel is a colorless, tasteless, and odorless gas that is highly explosive, and thus has a property that may cause ignition even due to minute static electricity. Accordingly, the detection of a hydrogen leak in the fuel cell vehicle is important. To detect the hydrogen leak, according to the related art, a hydrogen sensor is installed within a vehicle and a system for controlling the hydrogen sensor (e.g., a hydrogen leak determining system) is installed. Thus, the hydrogen sensors are mainly installed in a hydrogen line unit, a hydrogen tank, a fuel cell stack, and the like and determine a hydrogen leak, and when a hydrogen leak is detected, safety measures are taken based on a concentration of leaking hydrogen.
However, when starting of the vehicle stops, power is not applied to the hydrogen sensor, causing difficult in detection of a hydrogen leak, and when a hydrogen leak occurs, for safety's sake, there is a need for a control method which may determine whether a hydrogen leak occurs at a predetermined distance or greater from the vehicle.
The related art discloses a control method of actuating a gas leak monitoring unit at a predetermined time interval after the starting of the vehicle stops. However, the related art does not provide a configuration for discharging leaking hydrogen and also requires a distance from the vehicle to be below a predetermined distance to determine the hydrogen leak.
The above information disclosed in this section is merely for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.